I went to an event in Toronto on Wednesday to hear five Muslim speakers talk about the war between Israel and Hamas. The room was jammed with 650 eager listeners.
The keynote speaker was Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of the co-founder of Hamas.
Then three panelists each spoke, chaired by Raheel Raza, President of the Council for Muslims Facing Tomorrow. The panelists were Ontario MPP Goldie Ghamari, the first Iranian-Canadian woman elected to office in Canada and the Chair of the Standing Committee on Justice Policy; Asaad Sam Hanna, a member of the US Armed Forces and a strategic advisor to the Lobo Institute; and Bassem Eid, founder of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group.
All the speakers were expert, articulate and angry. They raged against the occupation of their people, the misery of their citizens’ lives, the death from above by relentless bombing. They called for the elimination of….Israel? Well, no, not Israel at all. Their rage was directed against their fellow Muslims: the members of Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the governments of Iran, Syria and Lebanon.
These prominent Muslim speakers believe October 7th was not a terrorist attack, but a genocide. They asked who is the victim here and who is the predator? They wondered why Western women weren’t rising up in rage against the rape of Muslim women in Iran on an industrial scale. And why North American universities didn’t march against ISIS when they took over Afghanistan; or the Ayatollah Khomeini’s brutal regime in Iran; or Bashar al-Assad gassing his own citizens in Syria. Why, they asked, are there large-scale protests across the cities of the West only when the Jews are involved?
I’ll tell you why: they rise, from a deep, dark well of antisemitism that is centuries old. Of course, there are other reasons. But hating Jews because they’re Jews, and wanting them wiped from the earth, is not a rare or even marginal belief in many countries. We should never forget that Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s President, has persistently denied the existence of the Holocaust.
But what made this event of Muslim speakers so uniquely odd was that it was hosted by B’Nai Brith Canada, and organized almost overnight by members of Toronto’s Jewish community.
I’ve been scouring the lists of Muslim associations, from the National Council of Canadian Muslims, to the Canadian Muslim Public Affairs Council, the University of Toronto Muslim Students’ Association, and the Muslim Association of Canada.
Not one of these groups has hosted a single event, talk or lecture since the attack of October 7th. Which is disappointing, given that their job is to put forward the Muslim case, and to act as catalysts for their own communities and in their relationship to others. (Admittedly, this was not an exhaustive search, so if you know of one, I’m happy to correct the record).
But the many Muslims I know don’t want war with Israel. Nor do they question its right to exist. I suspect they resent extremist Muslims the way many Jews resent the extreme elements of their own religion , especially since they seem to be driving the government’s actions in Gaza.
At an institutional level the muffling effect of extremism here in Canada may be one reason organizations aren’t reaching out. Islamophobia is rising almost as fast as antisemitism in Toronto.
And yet, below that level, things are happening. Did you know that Holy Blossom Temple on Bathurst Street in Toronto has a sister church and a sister mosque?
Toronto is supposed to be the most diverse and tolerant city on earth. That has frayed badly since October 7th. But precisely because we are so good at practising tolerance, we have a better chance than most of finding ways to talk to each other again, to invite in rather than shut out.
I say this because last Wednesday a Jewish group held an event on Wednesday night and invited only Muslims to speak. Five Muslims.
They didn’t attack Muslimism. They attacked Muslim extremism.
I expect five Jewish speakers at a Muslim event wouldn’t attack Judaism. They would attack Jewish extremism.
Ah, sweet are the uses of diversity.
Meanwhile…
1. These weepers are keepers. Here are two Christmas commercials. From now until Jesus’ birthday on the 25th, I’ll be showcasing the best of them whose goal is to make us cry for joy. So first, this from Chevrolet. Then this from the Dutch pharmacy company DocMorris.
2. Maya Turner wins the game ball. She not only became the first woman to play in a university sports football game in Canada, she also scored the game-winning field goal. Here’s her coach on what that means.
Even today, while women represent 40% of all athletes, they garner just 4% of media coverage.
3. Shakespeare’s first folio is 400 years old. It’s one of the great wonders of the literary world. The Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the U of T holds copies of all Shakespeare’s Folios. Also, Judi Dench is 88 years old. Together, Dench and Shakespeare are…heaven. (And is that not Arnold Schwarzenegger beside her?).
4. Only in Canada does the “Queen of Canada” live in Richmound, Saskatchewan, and threaten its citizens with “public execution.” And nowhere else does a foreign curling team, with nowhere to go, find a home in a Canadian retirement village.
5. Do you live in a NORC? It’s a naturally-occurring retirement community, a residential building where most of the owners or tenants are 65 and over. Like the Manulife Centre or The Colonnade, where we live. Toronto’s University Health Network was on to this trend well before the pandemic, and its possibilities for aging-in-place and accessible care.
6. David Attenborough is such an animal. This long-beaked echidna’s actual name is Sir David Attenborough. The other Attenborough is hosting the BBC’s stunning new Planet Earth III, “the greatest nature series ever.”
7. Happiness is an industry. You can take university courses, read hundreds of books, listen to thousands of podcasts – and still not be happy. Or you can listen to Dr. Peter Attia and Arthur Brooks talk about happiness as a learned skill, like playing the piano, not the reflection of a general attitude to life, like singing in the shower.
Also, this time of year, you can be happy and still feel SAD. It’s time for Seasonal Affective Disorder. Here are some facts and misconceptions around SAD.
8. George Cohon died last week. An immigrant from Chicago, Cohon founded McDonald’s Canada, created Ronald McDonald House for families of kids with cancer, saved Toronto’s Santa Claus Parade, and brought Big Macs to the Soviet Union. His friend Joe MacInnis penned the briefest of so many obits, yet the clearest.
9. Fat kids meet heart surgeons. Back in 2010, Emlyn Koster gave a TedMED Talk on how to teach people the deadly consequences of over-eating. Koster then went on to head the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Alberta, and is now with the Museum of Science in Boston where he writes with rising alarm about connecting familiar things in unfamiliar new ways, in The Earth Around Us.
10. Creativity is the production of social surprise. Here are some examples: Olivia Colman tackles pension funds. A town in Iceland paints crosswalks in 3D. The Lancet takes on the Nazis. plus “Suspense” accents for your phone, and British comedian, Jo Brand, tackles climate change, and notes: “If people like me need to get involved, you know we’re in deep shit.” Finally, Elon Musk tells us what he really thinks.
11. What I’m liking. Drake teams up with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. And The National Ballet is the subject of a stunning new documentary, Swan Song, about its comeback from Covid, and Karen Kain’s last great thing.
You can see it on CBC GEM (free to sign up) in four, 45-minute segments. If you can’t get your kids to The Nutcracker this month, sit them down to see how black swans and sugar plum fairies are really made. Kids are optional. This is the grown-up-est arts documentary ever.
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IN 2025, JOIN JEAN AND ME AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD.
Somerset Island is 3,400 kilometres north of Toronto and is listed as “uninhabited.” It is, except for Arctic Lodge Wilderness Lodge, the most northerly fly-in lodge on earth. 
For nine nights from July 24 to August 2, 2025, Jean and I will be taking the entire lodge and camp with 18 to 24 of our friends – and we’d love to have you and yours join us.
Yes, it takes a long time to fly that far north and costs a lot, as does everything in the High Arctic. But we think you’ll agree, it’s worth it. The price varies according to how many friends join us: from CAD $16,682 per person if we have 24, to CAD $22,938 if we have 18.
We’re closing registration on January 1, 2024, so please come with us to one of earth’s most fascinating places. And when your friends ask if you have any exotic trips planned, you can tell them that in 2025 you’re happy to just stick to Canada.
To sign up, just contact Tessum Weber at 1-819-923-0932 or tessum@arcticwatch.ca, or e-mail me at bob@ramsayinc.com.
Merry Christmas.
Bob & Jean